Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a receiver for a refrigerant for a refrigerant circuit, in particular of a motor vehicle, according to the preamble of claim 1, as well as to a condenser with such a receiver.
Description of the Background Art
Receivers for a refrigerant of a refrigerant circuit are known in the art. These receivers stockpile the refrigerant to have sufficient refrigerant available in the refrigerant circuit even with operational fluctuations of the filling volume.
Further, a drying agent is often provided in the receiver in order to dry the refrigerant and to filter out moisture from the refrigerant.
In the refrigerant circuit, the receiver is often arranged after the condenser or in the fluid stream between a condensation zone and a sub-cooling zone of the condenser. The refrigerant hereby flows from the condenser or from the condensation zone of the condenser into the receiver where the refrigerant is separated into a gaseous phase and a liquid phase. The gaseous phase collects above the liquid phase in the receiver and the liquid phase can be discharged out of the receiver from below the gaseous phase.
If gaseous refrigerant is also channeled from the receiver into the subsequent sub-cooling zone, this gaseous refrigerant must first condense in the sub-cooling zone so that the further lowering of the refrigerant temperature for the gaseous portion cannot take place until the gaseous portion is condensed. This reduces the effectiveness of the sub-cooling zone since a part of its effectiveness does not cause the lowering of the temperature of the refrigerant, but only its condensation.
This ultimately results in that the maximum sub-cool temperature is not reached, and the effectiveness of the subsequent evaporator is thus not optimal.
The filling level of the receiver with refrigerant depends on the load condition of the refrigerant circuit but also on the filling volume and any possible leakages. In the process, refrigerant is channeled into the subsequent sub-cooling zone under any operating condition, i.e. at any filling level of the refrigerant in the receiver.